I used to have a couple of pinball machines and a shuffle bowling-alley machine in my basement, but eventually the maintenance got to be too much, and I sold them.
Back in the 70s, my dad used to collect vintage arcade machines from the 40s, 50s & 60s. At one time we had two bowling machines -- one shuffle machine where you used a puck, and a larger one (about 4 meters long) where you rolled softball-sized plastic/rubber balls. Both machines "knocked down" the pins when the puck/ball ran over wire contacts embedded in the alley.
Dad & I used to spend a lot of weekends maintaining those machines; they had miles of cloth-insulated wire and dozens of solenoids & relays, so there were always contacts to be cleaned and adjusted. Since we got these machines second-hand, usually from bars/taverns, there'd be no schematics, which allowed us to hone our diagnostic skills, something that has come in very handy in my engineering career.
Your post is the first mention I've seen of bowling machines in almost 25 years -- it brings back many memories of a misspent youth. You've made my day.
It is almost certain that a DVR with a firewire port to plug in extra hard drives gets through.
One already has; it's called the Apple Macintosh. All recent Macs come with 1394 interfaces; just add Apple's free FireWire SDK, some AppleScript, and a tuner with FireWire output, such as the Moto DCT-62xx boxes used by Charter & Comcast, or the Samsung SIR-T165 for ATSC over-the-air, and you've got a DVR fully capable of recording & playing back HD.
I've been doing this for the last year using a $100 blue & white G3 I picked up off eBay. The new Mac Mini is almost ideal for this purpose, especially if you were to hack together a laptop-to-IDE adapter so you could use a 200 GB+ IDE drive -- the Mini's existing laptop drive isn't quite big enough for HD recording, and it's a bit on the slow side.
Charter, at least here in metro Atlanta, uses the Motorola DCT-6200 series boxes (same as Comcast). They provide a FireWire interface, but no real documentation of how to use it.
Using Mac OS 10.3, I can control it from my Mac and record the MPEG2 transport stream onto the Mac's hard drive. Linux geeks can use lib1394 and VLC.
Notes is the single worst application I've encountered in my 20-year career in software development, both from a UI and usability perspective. To be fair, many of the usability issues I've encountered in Notes can be chalked up to poor DB design by the Notes admin -- the UI problems, however, are pure Lotus.
The UI issues of Notes are shared by most Lotus products -- Lotus' concept of UI is rather different than Microsoft's, and was the one thing I hated most about working for Lotus back when I was on the WordPro dev team back in the late 90s.
Actually, President Clinton signed the Kyoto treaty in 1998. However, under the US Constitution, all treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the Senate -- no such vote has ever been scheduled, because there's not enough Senate support for the treaty.
In 2001, President Bush "withdrew" the US signature on the Kyoto treaty -- I have no idea if such a withdrawal is legitimate, not that it matters much.
Selenium is actually a p-type semiconductor, and is also useful in photovoltaic and photoconductive applications. I'm no materials scientist, but if one could cheaply extract the selenium from the plants (say, by burning them & processing the ash) after they've detoxed the soil, it might prove to be a boon to various high-technology businesses.
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Are you sure it wasn't an electronic organizer?
I used to have a couple of pinball machines and a shuffle bowling-alley machine in my basement, but eventually the maintenance got to be too much, and I sold them.
Back in the 70s, my dad used to collect vintage arcade machines from the 40s, 50s & 60s. At one time we had two bowling machines -- one shuffle machine where you used a puck, and a larger one (about 4 meters long) where you rolled softball-sized plastic/rubber balls. Both machines "knocked down" the pins when the puck/ball ran over wire contacts embedded in the alley.
Dad & I used to spend a lot of weekends maintaining those machines; they had miles of cloth-insulated wire and dozens of solenoids & relays, so there were always contacts to be cleaned and adjusted. Since we got these machines second-hand, usually from bars/taverns, there'd be no schematics, which allowed us to hone our diagnostic skills, something that has come in very handy in my engineering career.
Your post is the first mention I've seen of bowling machines in almost 25 years -- it brings back many memories of a misspent youth. You've made my day.
I do it with a blue & white G3 I bought for $100 off eBay last year.
Why pay it when you can get a free clone, built from the RedHat sources?
It is almost certain that a DVR with a firewire port to plug in extra hard drives gets through.
One already has; it's called the Apple Macintosh. All recent Macs come with 1394 interfaces; just add Apple's free FireWire SDK, some AppleScript, and a tuner with FireWire output, such as the Moto DCT-62xx boxes used by Charter & Comcast, or the Samsung SIR-T165 for ATSC over-the-air, and you've got a DVR fully capable of recording & playing back HD.
I've been doing this for the last year using a $100 blue & white G3 I picked up off eBay. The new Mac Mini is almost ideal for this purpose, especially if you were to hack together a laptop-to-IDE adapter so you could use a 200 GB+ IDE drive -- the Mini's existing laptop drive isn't quite big enough for HD recording, and it's a bit on the slow side.
Actually, the California state constitution specifically lists a right to privacy -- it's in the second sentence of the document.
Well, the Drew in DrewTech is an old college buddy of mine; he's a pretty cool guy.
On the XP version, you're limited to 81 mines on a 10 x 10 grid. If you enter 98 or 99, it doesn't complain, but you get only 81 mines.
In a semi-related topic, I heard that Bush has said that he doesn't consider atheists as citizens and yet he has been elected, two times!
Wrong Bush; that was George Herbert Walker Bush, Dubya's daddy.
Charter, at least here in metro Atlanta, uses the Motorola DCT-6200 series boxes (same as Comcast). They provide a FireWire interface, but no real documentation of how to use it.
Using Mac OS 10.3, I can control it from my Mac and record the MPEG2 transport stream onto the Mac's hard drive. Linux geeks can use lib1394 and VLC.
More than likely, it'd make a liquid that is almost but not quite entirely unlike tea.
Perhaps they could use brain fingerprinting; they already have offices in Iowa.
That'd make this expedition a piece of cake. One of the two expeditioners is a relative.
f) all of the above
Exactly right, and I used to work for Lotus as part of the SmartSuite dev team. Notes is pure evil.
Notes is the single worst application I've encountered in my 20-year career in software development, both from a UI and usability perspective. To be fair, many of the usability issues I've encountered in Notes can be chalked up to poor DB design by the Notes admin -- the UI problems, however, are pure Lotus.
The UI issues of Notes are shared by most Lotus products -- Lotus' concept of UI is rather different than Microsoft's, and was the one thing I hated most about working for Lotus back when I was on the WordPro dev team back in the late 90s.
Of course IBM dropped the ball, just like they did with Lotus' other products e.g. SmartSuite.
They have a PocketPC client; then you can use the Axim as a VOIP phone.
Unfortunately, that word only describes the successful gangs -- how would you describe the up-and-comers?
than what these guys used.
Schneier obviously read this.
I'm guessing that the brain only can handle two arms. You could have an extra limb, but it would perfectly mimic either the left or the right arm.
Douglas Adams figured that out years ago -- that's why Zaphod has the second head.
Actually, President Clinton signed the Kyoto treaty in 1998. However, under the US Constitution, all treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the Senate -- no such vote has ever been scheduled, because there's not enough Senate support for the treaty.
In 2001, President Bush "withdrew" the US signature on the Kyoto treaty -- I have no idea if such a withdrawal is legitimate, not that it matters much.
The US Army can't even manage to pay their troops, and you expect them to provide communications?
Selenium is actually a p-type semiconductor, and is also useful in photovoltaic and photoconductive applications. I'm no materials scientist, but if one could cheaply extract the selenium from the plants (say, by burning them & processing the ash) after they've detoxed the soil, it might prove to be a boon to various high-technology businesses.